The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1887-08-27
IN THE TIMBER,
A Day In the Trullinger Camp on the Wal
luski-Logging by RaiIro ad.

Through the courtesy of Mr.. j. G
Trulling and the superintendent of his
logging crew, Mr.. Yocum, had the priyi-
lege of witnessing in its details the opera
tions of logging. The Trullinger camp is
on the Walluski river, southeast from
Astoria and distant about seven miles by
land. By water, the usual way of travel,
it is some distance further. / chose the
land route because it gave chance to
see the inside of the timber. There is
not, believe, such another road In the
United States. 1t was made at great ex-
pense and is for the greater part grand
aisle through the forest. On all sides
there are great trees, while the smaller
growth is of that dense and impenetrable
sort common near the sea coast in Ore
gon. Although / was looking for the
practical rather than the beautiful
could but mark the charm of the journey.
While the route was certainly monoton-
GUS In the continuous march of tall trees,
varity was not lacking in the smaller
growths and in the coloring, which
ranged from the most sombre deep green
| to the bright scarlet of autumn.
/ found Mr.. Yocum and his men at
| work in q maze of timber so dense and
| tangled that it was only possible to get
| my horse through by cutting a special
Il trail. From the midst of this maze,
1 made up of small frs, scattered cedars,
hemlocks, bushes of many kinds, and a
4 tangle of vines, the giant frs were stand
ing, from twenty to sixty per acre. A
more symmetrical, cleaner and better
ouality of timber no man ever saw. In
the course of two hours i was able to see
the whole operation from the telling OF
the tree to chuting of the logs into the
river. In the fall of these mighty trunks,
III A.. L,A hrr~, rn1 <xaeaf rrnh rTn
there is something majestic and to me
painful. They come down with a crash
! which fells all obstacles and makes the
firm earth tremble. Riding on horseback
beside one of these PROSTATE giants, near
the big or butt end, my shoulder was
!, little lower than the top. At the tirst
cut the wood measured, inside the bark,
eight feet and the fraction of an inch
across. With the bark the tree three
feet from the ground was eight feet and
: seven inches through, or twenty-five feet
and nine inches in circumference L am
not now speaking of special brag tree
but one that came casually under my
notice. While it was, so Mr.. Yokum told
me, a large tree, still he had cut dowI
and hauled out many equally large and
= some that were larger. As We sat, ht
pointed out to me several standing trees
which would measure from to 3 feet II
diameter and entirely free from limbs o.
3 other defects for distance of one hun
dred and fifty feet from the ground
Such is the timber of the Wallusk, q
fair sample of the forests which lie ad
jacent to Astoria and described in the
districts mentioned above.
In Mr.. Trullinger's camp, the maiI
/ haul is made by railroad constructed fo
this purpose so that the haul made By
oxen is not great. This part was to m,
} extremely interesting. Five yoke or ter
oxen were hitched to log weighing il
the neighborhood of twenty thousanC
pounds, and it was ''snaked" along, no
indeed without much geeing and having
with comparative ease to platform from
which it was easily rolled to fat car. Al
e q novelty / undertook to ride down {
grade SO abrupt that the cattle had to ruI
to keep clear from the descending log
4 Planting myself firmly astride held OF
, as best could. 1t didn't take long, les
than half a minute, but I've known
( whole summer vacation to seem shorter
ell Railroads are now being introduces
everywhere as an aid to logging. b
their use distance is practically annihi
o | lated, and timber fields back from waite
o are made scarcely less valuable thai
those which lie along creek or river bot
!, toms. As there are no demands for spec
n these logging roads are usually of cheal
construction. Old rails and old rOllin
S stock, too much worn for fast work, are
: for the purposes of logging, quite as goo
!. as new stock and are commonly used
L Mr.. Trullinger's road, which is of stand
o ard gauge and perfect in its way, wa
| built of old material and cost only abou
$4,000 per mile. When the immediat
n district through which it runs is exhauste
" it will be an easy matter to take up th
rails and put them down in anothe
) place. From this time forth railroad
= will be an absolute necessity for logginl
There is in the general Astoria district
{ vast quantity of timber within a mil
IS and half from water, and so available fo
skid roads and oxen. This is the limi
for hauling proftably with oxen, bu
IS even at this distance it is found cheape
4 to build and operate short roads than
:, employ cattle.-"A. H." dn Oregonidn.